Pioneer Days

Every year 4th graders take an exciting journey of traveling back in time! They travel back over a hundred years ago, when our little town became an incorporated village in Wisconsin. They get to experience what it was like to go to school in a one room schoolhouse and the responsibilities of students their age back in Pioneer Days!

What is Pioneer Days

Every year in March, 4th graders get to experience Pioneer days! This is the 39th year students will be participating in Pioneer Days. Each class will have two whole days of experiencing what it was like to be a student back in the "Pioneer Days."

One of the coolest things of Pioneer Days is students dress in character. We work with our local historical society to set up times for students to go in and try on different outfits they would like to wear. If they would like to dress in character they are allowed to borrow an outfit at no cost to them.

Activities at Pioneer School

Day1

When students come in the morning they are all dressed up in their Pioneer outfits and we get ready to walk about a mile over to our community building. The village lets us use the community building at no cost to the school. Once we get to the community building we line them up outside in two lines, a girls line and boys line, shortest to tallest. The ladies always go first and they walk downstairs into the basement of the building and have a seat at a chair. We talk to them about how back then, the one room schoolhouses consisted of 1st-8th graders. That is why we put the shorter students in front and the taller students in back. Usually the 8th graders were taller, so they would be sitting in the back of the room and the 1st graders would be in the front of the room.

Pioneer Pledge

The first activity students participate in is learning the pledge. The pledge we say today is different from the Pioneer Pledge over 100 years ago. They also saluted the flag differently. We then split our Pioneer classes into two seperate groups. One group helps make cornbread muffins and molasses cookies, while the other group does candle dipping. We have parent volunteers that help run all the stations. When they are all done the students get a muffin and cookie to eat at lunch on both days and they also get to take their candle home. After a half hour they switch and students cooking go make candles and vice versa.

Candle Dipping

When all the candle dipping and cookie are done we have a couple of community members who come talk about the history of weapons and hunting. They talk about native americans using spears, to early rifles, to trapping gear. They go into detail on how they evolved over time, what the purpose of each one was and how it was used. They also go into details on what kind of animals were hunted and what different hides would be used for.

Trapping & Hunting Furs

The teachers then take them through an "old school" reading lesson. We are very strict! When students make mistakes they have to put on the Dunce cap or go stand in the corner with their nose against the wall. When the lesson is over we talk to the students about what the lesson was like and how they felt. We explain that back then, those things were done to embarrass students in hopes that they did not make mistakes again.

We give the students time to play recess games upstairs in the gym. During recess time we teach the students new games like fetch the bacon, button button who has the button, card toss, and drop the handkerchief.  It's amazing how much students love playing these games and how excited they get while playing them.

Line Dancing

To end the first day we teach the students a partner line dance. We have a fiddle player who comes in to play the music, while our caller calls the line dance and students dance with their partner. This is usually the part most fourth graders dread with the possibility of dancing with a girl or boy,but they end up loving it and wanting to dance again at the end of the school year.

Day2

Pioneer Music

To begin the second day we start with the Pioneer pledge and transitions right into Pioneer music. Our music teacher spends the a few weeks before Pioneer Days going over songs and music with the students to play and sign at Pioneer School. When they get to Pioneer School they sing the Pioneer Songs and play several different instruments. Some of the instruments include a tin tub with a string, washboards, and spoons.

Next, we go into our Pioneer Math lesson. Again, like the reading lesson we are very strict and expectation are high. We do not take whispering and we make students show all their work on a hand chalkboard. A little different than the Chromebooks they are use to using.

Pioneer Math Class

Our last guest speaker goes into character like he is living in the year 1900. He talks about what it was like to live back then and what it was like to fight in the civil war. He shows the students his army outfits,a bunch of toys he would have played with as a child and toys he would have for his own children to play with back then.

We wrap up the second day by playing Pioneer Games. We split them into 5 different groups for the different games. The different stations include marbles, checkers, dominoes, Jacks and Swattum Bottom. I think most people are familiar with all the games except Swattum Bottom. This is a lot like duck, duck goose except instead of using your hands you have towel. When running after the person, you try to swat their bottom with the towel. After the students get a chance to play the games at all five stations we clean up, pack their stuff up and get ready to head back to school.

The Benefits of Pioneer Days

Civil War Speaker

We always get questions asking why we do Pioneer Days if it so much work, There are numerous benefits to Pioneer days. One of the biggest benefits is the fact that it brings community members into the school and ties school and community together. Over the course of the week we will have had over 9 different community members volunteer their time to come talk and demonstrate different skills at Pioneer Days.

Another benefit is the fact that students learn about the history of their town and country. They learn about the history of hunting, trapping and fishing. They learn about the purpose for hunting and trapping different animals and the uses for the different hides. They get to experience what school use to be like and usually leave realizing how fortunate they are to be going to school today and not 100 years ago. They learn how mistakes were not always celebrated, but were thought of as a sign of stupidity and meant to embarrass students so they wouldn't make mistakes again.

Student with Dunce Cap on

Lastly, they learn how people had to work hard if they wanted to attend school. They learn that not everyone was fortunate enough to go to school (something a lot of them take for granted today). If they did get to attend school they had to walk miles to and from school each day. They had to balance working on the farm and their school work. I bring this one up because I think to often students today do not realize what hard work really is. After leaving Pioneer School students usually have a better idea of what hard work is and how fortunate they are to be able to go to school every day.

Do you have any events students look forward to each year?

Lesson: It is good to know about your history and the incredible things people are able to accomplish through hard work!